Crystal Falls to Seventeen Mile Falls, Jatbula Trail, Nitmiluk National Park - May 2004

Crystal Falls

We were up early again today, after packing up camp and having brekky we tackled the first obstacle of the day, crossing  the creek above Crystal Falls. With a fair bit of water still coming down there was no chance of a dry crossing though. I figured that the best course of action would be for me to cross with my pack before returning to help Sam over and then finally going back over again to bring Sam's pack across. Needless to say with all the early mornings activities, by the time I'd finally crossed for the last time I was in need of a cooling swim before we set off. Now this might sound a little soft....actually it is pretty soft....but it was a very hot morning, well that's my excuse anyway.

The day started off with a decent creek crossing.

Followed by a cooling swim.

Drying off my feet and pulling on the boots after my swim we set off to climb up to the lookout over Crystal Falls. By the time we'd climbed the thirty or so metres up to the lookout my swim was a distant memory and I was leaking sweat. The lookout not only gives a view of Crystal Falls but also into the deep gorge that Crystal Falls drops into, so stopping for awhile was no hardship even though we'd probably only progressed around 150 metres on today's walk.

We've walked around 150 metres up to the Crystal Falls Lookout, it was stinking hot already.

Crystal Falls from the lookout.

Crystal Falls drops into this shear sided gorge.

Once we left the environs of Crystal Falls we largely left the sandstone country behind for awhile, now crossing a succession of damp shallow valleys. While the shallow valleys made for fairly level walking, like a lot of the walk the track needed a good eye to follow through the wet season growth. Eventually the track crossed a more substantial creek and shortly after we arrived at the turn off to The Amphitheatre now back in some sandstone country.

The route was a little over grown sometimes today.

Sam's checking out the map, probably planning her next swim!

Filling the water bottles up in one of the damper valleys.

The Amphitheatre is one of the highlights of walking the Jatbula Trail, which makes you wonder why I only took a few dodgy photos really. Climbing down the ladder we were suddenly in a cooler, damper environment, vegetated with monsoon rainforest and with a fairly reliable creek running through it this place must have been some kind of oasis to the Jawoyn people back in the day. The sheer walls of the Amphitheatre forming an impressive open air gallery this was a great spot to relax and chill out for awhile.

The monsoon rainforest in the Amphitheatre.

The walls of the Amphitheatre form a great open air art gallery.

All good things come to an end though and soon enough we climbed back up the ladder onto the sandstone plateau and into the heat. We were now heading generally west towards Seventeen Mile Falls, a lookout ten minutes before the falls giving us a great view of our destination. Reaching the creek above Seventeen Mile Falls we once again were faced with a wet crossing, so like this morning I shuttled back and forth getting everything over dry while Sam waded though without her pack almost waist deep in the water.

Our first look at Seventeen Mile Falls.

Crossing Seventeen Mile Creek above the falls.

There was certainly a good flow in Seventeen Mile Creek today.

Once across the creek it was about a minute later that we arrived at the Seventeen Mile Falls Camp. After quickly getting the tent up we grabbed our cooking gear, our food and our goggles and headed down to the pool above the falls. Our afternoon, like most others on the track was spent relaxing swimming, reading, and exploring while the sun made its way across the sky and the red bluffs around us slowly changed colour. We felt extremely lucky to have such a magical place to ourselves.

I was slowly turning the same colour as the country.

The lookout that gives you the first look at Seventeen Mile Falls is on the end of that bluff.

Seventeen Mile Creek flows down this valley to enter the Katherine River around twenty metres from the point that we started walking from three days ago.

Our cooking rock with the swimming hole off to the left, Seventeen Mile Falls.

The Dirt.

We walked 16.5 kilometres today on what was probably a medium grade days walking, although only really because the creeks were up and the tracks a little over grown after the wet season. Like all the camps on the Jatbula Track the camp at Seventeen Mile Falls is in a superb spot, perched just above another great swimming hole. In the three days so far since leaving Nitmiluk we'd had walked 35.8 kilometres on our meanderings.

Relevant Posts.

Day 2, Biddlecombe Cascades to Crystal Falls, Nitmiluk National Park, 2004.

Day 4, Seventeen Mile Falls to Sandy Camp Waterhole, Nitmiluk National Park, 2004.

Darwin, 2006.

Eighth Gorge, Nitmiluk National Park, 2004.

Darwin, 2010.

The end of another great day on the Jatbula Trail.